Amber has also been a very loyal friend to us, good-natured and kind, standing by us to this day. She has become my rock and is one of the few friends I am most comfortable to speak with about anything. We have very similar interests, like tarot cards and the mystic world of clairvoyance. Once, she predicted I would become a father in 2015. She also has an exceptional gift to make you happy from the sentimental stories she tells you of her experiences. She has a rare gift. People never feel diffident around her. Rich or poor, royalty or common, Amber fits right in.
Amber rang one afternoon to check our availability that coming Saturday morning. She asked if we could be present at the studio. No clear reason was given, just that she was intending to pick up some clothes for the royal visit. Mary was coming to Sydney, and Amber was to be by her side throughout the trip and needed some new clothes. They were two very close old friends hanging out.
The day before, a member of security from the Danish embassy came to our studio to snoop around. We didn’t have much of an idea what was happening but that night coverage of our Princess Mary and the Crown Prince Frederick’s arrival into Sydney blitzed the news. Mary’s presence was so graceful and regal, and we wished so much to dress Australia’s first princess one day. It was a dream of ours.
On the appointed Saturday, Jayson and I went into work to wait for Amber. At about 10am, I received a call telling us she was ten minutes away. Somehow, Amber did not arrive first – instead a sea of Danish security guards came and formed a line outside our small office in Holt Street, Surry Hills. We wondered about the commotion, but thought maybe this was part of the deal for the royal entourage, since Amber would be spending a lot of time with her best friend and as such, the service would be extended to her as well. We disregarded the security staff presence.
Minutes later, Amber arrived – but not alone! Her Royal Highness was next to her! We nearly died. We stood there dumbfounded, our jaws dropping to the floor on seeing Princess Mary right in front of us. After the doors closed, Mary and Amber stayed more than an hour while, unbeknownst to us, the paparazzi and crowds gathered outside our building. I won’t go into details about the visit. I feel it would be highly unethical of me to write about any of it, and in any case those moments with Mary and Amber are personal to Jayson and me and will stay that way. But I can truly say it was a most rewarding experience. There are no words to describe it, or Princess Mary herself for the matter. She was beyond our expectation. She is truly one of the sweetest and nicest people I have ever met – so real, down to earth and sincere with her true Aussie self still intact. We also found her to be regal; surpassing her image in many ways. Mary loved the new collection, wanting to purchase it in its entirety, and also commissioned Jayson to design something new – a gown to wear to an upcoming event in Denmark, in lilac, her favourite colour. After our meeting, I have frequently said how fitting it was for Frederick to have found Mary. He must have seen something so special in her, like the same special qualities we saw in her that day and the way her glowing presence struck us. There is no person in this world more deserving of the Danish Prince Charming. Their love story is like a fairytale and why shouldn’t fairytales come true? Mary was always the perfect choice to become the Danish Princess. For days after her visit, I couldn’t even speak about the privilege it was to have met our Mary.
When she left our office, I walked Amber and Princess Mary downstairs, not realising that there were more than 1,000 people outside the building waiting for her. The gathering crowd and photographers roared as she exited the studio. It gave me goosebumps. Shortly afterwards a journalist, Philip Koch, came knocking at our door, saying he knew the princess had just been here. We didn’t confirm or deny it. We took the high road by not commenting on the visit. The next day, we were on page three of the Sunday newspapers, along with photos of Jayson and his latest collection, which was coincidentally themed “The King and I”. The whole story was devoted to how Australia’s first princess had visited her favourite fashion designer. A comment at the end of the story read, “The designer refused to comment.” The story placed us on the map once again, as the first ever Australian designer in the country to dress our new princess. I think Mary and Amber appreciated our discretion, the fact that we chose not to use the visit to our advantage, instead respecting the privacy of our Princess. The relationship between us and Mary has lasted more than a decade. To this day we still dress her, our favourite client.
It was years of hard work that had brought Jayson and me to the point where our brand was a household name. We were approached by American investor Gene Pressman (his family founded Barney’s department store), who wanted to take our label into the USA. Together with a good friend, Joe Nicholson, the label swam its way offshore into the USA. We were also fortunate to meet reputable US agents Ab Korine and his partner Arthur Drogowski (ADK Fashions), who became and still are very good friends of ours. They were typical fun New Yorkers, Seventh Avenue rag traders. Ab took no bullshit from anyone and where business was concerned, he was top of his game. Many times I have watched him in action – how he would get on the phone and negotiate big numbers for the styles the stores booked.
“Listen here, you can’t have fifty units of the Romance Gown because I have Saks knocking on my door for two hundred units. What would you do if you were in my shoes?” he would exclaim.
Buyers always increased the order. He had brilliant strategies for getting them to part with their dollars and, like me, he chained-smoked. Within a year of Ab becoming our manager, demand for the brand was once again out of control. “Jayson Brunsdon” was hanging in Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and stores all across the USA. At our peak, we were stocked in over 300 stores across 22 American states. Along with Sass and Bide, we were America’s Australian designer darlings.
The momentum kept building and before we knew it, we were invited to show at New York Fashion Week. This was after deliberation by a panel consisting of highly lauded American designers and fashion influencers. In 2006, Jayson and I went to New York City with our team to show our first collection on the catwalk at Bryant Park’s Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, second only to Paris as the most prominent and highly regarded fashion week in the world. More than 800 people attended the premier show and I remember walking down the street from our hotel on 42nd Street to Bryant Park when Jayson looked at me and said, “Can you believe this is happening?”
We were in disbelief, with no idea how this had happened. We were on our way to our own show at Bryant Park, on one of the world’s biggest fashion platforms. For years we could have only imagined or dreamed such a possibility. We never thought it was within our reach to be placed alongside America’s top designers like Dianne Von Furstenberg, Michael Korrs and Zac Posen on the New York catwalk. We were small-time Aussie designers who were now playing with the big guns. Rihanna sat front row at one of our shows and Jennifer Hawkins – Miss Universe and the face of Myer – made her way to New York to support us. The show blitzed the Australian newspapers and even made the front cover of WWD, the highly regarded American fashion publication.
Again, we were inundated with orders and sales were out of control. The icing on the cake was a 3am call in Sydney upon our return that woke us both. It was not abnormal for Ab to call us at such hours, considering the time difference. Usually it would be about an order and its status, but that day he called to tell us that one of our dresses, the “Swan” dress, was gracing the Christmas windows of the prestigious Saks Manhattan flagship store. What a wonderful Christmas surprise: the white organza fairylike dress in the Saks window, a window seen by nearly a million onlookers and shoppers yearly!
We were in boom times and fashion was fast becoming a huge commodity. But rumours were emerging about an imminent economic collapse. Business was getting tougher; stores were harder to deal with, complaining about almost everything, and no one was paying bills on time. Arthur and Ab were gems – supportive and working twice as hard. Our American company was still relatively healthy
but with the big overheads, the expensive quarterly travelling costs, the cost of agents, distributors, public relations, and the various cuts involved to all other parties, we were barely left with loose change. It was hard work and we were exhausted. We briefly considered moving to the USA for the business’s sake but in the end decided not to. The travelling was painful. The morning after one of our shows, we drove more than six hours in a Hummer to speak to a team of 100 staff. We finally got there and even after several cups of coffee we felt like death, but still having to force ourselves to talk to a large group of Neiman Marcus store staff. Try telling some bullshit story about which Australian actresses you dress at 7am to some 100 people when you look like shit and have had barely three hours’ sleep. Not pretty, believe me.
Once I was stuck in a blizzard at JFK and not able to get home to Sydney. There wasn’t any form of transport to Manhattan so I had to sleep on the airport floor, shivering in the -13-degree temperature.
Meanwhile, Jayson felt like he was in limbo. There were various people giving him different opinions on what he should do and what he must design for the American consumers. We want more prom dresses, in bright colours like orange, pink and red. There was always this “I want more” from buyers. With all the travelling and organising of our twice-yearly fashion shows at Bryant Park – the cost of each show enough to buy a small unit back home – we were chipping away at our reserves. There was the inevitable schmoozing with clients at dinners, entertaining them Aussie-style, where we would drink for hours and hours on end, partaking in petty conversations we didn’t care much for. It was business and the more asses you kissed, the bigger your presence was. The American buyers were a different kettle of fish to the Aussies. They were sometimes tough and if they didn’t like what they saw, you would be sure to know. They didn’t beat about the bush but told you their disappointment straight to your face: “Not for us, maybe for your Australian customers.” Their opinions about your inability to design appropriately or the style’s lack of performance in their stores were well and truly vocal. They had the chequebook in hand so you had to suffer the insults despite how demeaning it was, especially after a year of hard work putting together the collection. Sometimes we would cringe in the sales appointments. We hated having to sit there for several hours with bored straight-faced buyers or self-absorbed ones who were pretty much on their phones throughout. One buyer would shake her head if she didn’t like it or nod without any emotion whatsoever if she did. So damn straight-faced it was hard to read anything or get any feedback. I mostly hated it when they came into the appointments with piles and piles of printed sheets with sales figures. They were in such detail, with your brand’s performance in each one of the stores. Although I am a figures person and have the ability to number crunch, I still struggled as the American reports were painfully intricate and boring.
When our American company started to decline in sales in late 2007 and news about the ill health of the economy lingered, our financial advisors urged us to consider taking a sabbatical. We couldn’t see the rationale of it after years of hard work in the market to build a momentum. To stop now, why? Sales were declining but not enough to take a break. We were stubborn and remained oblivious, keeping our focus where the pastures had once been green. Warning signs came from all directions, “Stop before it is too late or you will be sorry.” We heeded none of them.
When a huge department store refused to accept a large order that was two weeks late, I started to realise what everyone was saying may have indeed been true. Overnight, in 2008, the Global Financial Crisis hit America and the world. Stock markets crashed worldwide, and housing and job markets suffered intensely, leaving over 5 million Americans homeless and unemployed. The crisis played a significant role in the collapse of our American enterprise; the poorer American consumer did a lot less shopping. It was that ultimate blow that destroyed our American asset. Luxury goods and high fashion were among the first sectors to suffer. Our stock wasn’t a necessity but rather a luxury. We were stuck with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of stock in transit, which stores couldn’t pay for. Several of our clients went bankrupt and some without any conscience flatly refused to accept the stock they had ordered. The businesses were consolidating what they had left with limited means since the crash. We were worried sick, and had no idea what to do because of how fragile the American enterprise was. It could collapse and go bust any minute.
Back home, Jayson was selected, after rigorous auditioning of over 100 contenders, to be the weekly guest judge on the highly rated Australian version of the American fashion reality TV show, Project Runway, for Foxtel. Kristy Hinze was to host the highly anticipated show and she was dating Netscape billionaire Jim Clarke, thirty-six years her senior. Jayson had known Kristy since she was fifteen, when she modelled the Morrissey runway shows. Kristy is the granddaughter of politician Russ Hinze, who died from bowel cancer just before charges of alleged corruption could be brought against him. Kristy was discovered at a racing show where she was competing in show jumping by a model casting agent from Chic Models, Australia’s top international modelling agency. The agent saw the potential in the quintessential Australian beauty, tall and sporty with a perfect body, to model both high fashion and swimsuits, and she asked Kristy’s mother Vivienne for permission for her to become a model. The definite potential was there for the girl from Queensland to be a supermodel. After a few months modelling, Kristy became an international star, modelling for Parisian designer Jean Paul Gaultier and appearing on Marc Anthony’s music video. She also walked for Australian swimsuit brand Tiger Lily, which Jodie Packer owned and which brought Kristy fame for handling an albino snake on the catwalk.
We are crazy about Kristy, who is a very genuine person, true and kind to her friends. She remains a close and loyal friend, an extended member of our family. Kristy would go out of her way to help you and has never stopped short of proving what a great mate she is. She is a true Aussie, many a time saying, “You can take the girl out of Australia, but you cannot take Australia out of the girl.” When she married Jim in 2009 on Richard Branson’s private British Virgin island in the Caribbean, the wedding was attended by many stars, including Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber and Edward Norton. Jayson designed the dresses for the entire bridal party. Her nuptials to Jim were made out by the press to have been spuriously motivated, his wealth being the primary motive, but the reality of it is that Kristy and the billionaire from a humble beginning were madly in love with each other. Those who know them have seen the chemistry between the two and understand the passion they have for each other. What one must know is that the billionaire and one of Australia’s most beautiful women could have chosen anyone in this world to marry, each were good catches, but they were drawn to each other and fell in love, despite the age gap between them. Many have said how lucky it was for her to have found and wed the billionaire, but I say, how lucky for him to have met this wonderful human being, the compassionate, kind, loving soul Kristy. She found a true genius, one she finds mentally and physically attractive.
When the Project Runway filming schedule began, Jayson rigorously flew out three times a week to Melbourne on overnight stays, returning home the next morning after filming an episode. He juggled work, designing, briefing his team and flying out again the next day to Melbourne to shoot another episode. He did this solidly for eight consecutive weeks. It was tiring and Jayson struggled to keep up with the hectic schedule. Once again, in our ignorance, we thought we could do everything, rule the world. Our next venture was going into business with some investors whom we met while on holidays in Singapore. The new partners promised to open a licensed Jayson Brunsdon flagship store on Orchard Road, Singapore’s elite shopping district, and would roll the business out to stores in Malaysia, Indonesia and two other Asian countries. It was a dream come true. How exciting, we thought. This could make us very wealthy and also help substantiate the losses we faced with the downfall of the American market. The deal was done and
a few months later, around the same time as filming began with Project Runway, we opened the new store. Sadly the relationship between us and the investors went pear-shaped within a year. The remnants of the GFC slowly penetrating the Asian market didn’t help our plight very much either. Luckily for us, the trademarks sat protected and isolated in a vaulted trust and no one could get their hands on them. I choose never to regret anything in life. It is a waste of time. But I regret very much having chosen to go down the business path with them. It was the wrong mix. We grew too big too fast. I thought I had the world in the palm of my hand and was untouchable. I was wrong. We learned the hard way, and too late to save what we had. What followed was a year’s battle between lawyers, and we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in solicitors’ fees to end the tumultuous relationship with the individuals. The series of bad luck, failed business partnerships and losing money was the beginning of something even more painful, a blow that shot us down point blank and which no one can ever be ready for because it was the time when cancer struck. Cancer is no game and certainly no laughing matter. It is a curse. A deadly one, like opening Pandora’s Box with nothing inside but hope.
6
Testicular Cancer
In Melbourne after shooting the eleventh episode of the first series of Australia’s Project Runway, Jayson noticed a lump in his testicles while bathing. He informed me and, after a quick inspection, I reassured him, telling him it was probably a cyst of some sort and we would get it checked out the next day when we returned to Sydney. It was alarming but I boiled it down to nothing. Men sometimes get stuff like this in that part of our anatomy. But on Friday 13 June 2008, an ill-fated day, after a visit to our GP and a CT scan of the lump’s region, Jayson was diagnosed with testicular cancer. We had an appointment to St Vincent’s Private the next morning to meet with the country’s best urologist, Dr Brenner. Dr Brenner came recommended by our GP, whom we trusted implicitly. His immediate advice was for Jayson to undergo urgent surgery for its removal. We had no time to waste or Jayson could suffer more serious consequences, one being the rapid growth of the cancerous cell. It was the size of a ten-cent piece but he predicted that within days it could be as big as a golfball and the bigger it was, the more chance it could leave the region and spread. He scheduled the operation to take place on Monday (two days’ time). He asked Jayson whether he would consider freezing his sperm if he intended to become a father later down the track, because there may be complications post-surgery. He had to decide now. There was no time to think through the implications or discuss things fully with each other. We were having a hard enough time grappling with the news of his cancer and what that implied, let alone planning our future with children! Jayson declined the offer. We wanted it all to go away, it felt so surreal. We were not only dealing with the bad news that Jayson had cancer, we also had only two days to think about making immediate short-term alternative plans. We put everything else on hold: work, business and completing Jayson’s new collection. It was frightening; our world was tumbling down, and we had to be precise in our thinking as timing was critical. We were scared and worried about the future. And the cancer? Cancer – it was always a dirty word that smelt of illness and possibly death and something that happened to someone else, not us. It evoked fear, chaos and destruction in our souls.
Designer Baby Page 5
